Houston Democrats

For anyone interested in local "progressive programming" this may come as a surprise: KTRH, AM740 (owned by Clear Channel) has begun broadcasting Democracy Radio's Ed Schultz. Ed Schultz is our version of Rush Limbaugh. He can be found "on the local airwaves" at 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. I received a response from Ken Charles, Regional Vice President of Programming for Clear Channel Houston. He assures me that Ed will remain on the air on weekends and KTRH plans on moving him to weekdays, 7p - 10p beginning April 4th. Our message comes through loud and clear from this source!

Murvin has put me in charge of trying to get Air America here in Houston. YIKES! It's such a HUGE task, but I'll do everything that I can to make it happen. But since I do not own a radio station or know someone rich enough to buy a radio station to convert to Air America, I'm at a little bit of a loss. So far I've sent an email to Air America asking for help. If I don't hear from them by Wednesday, August 17, 2005, I will give them a call and ask them what I can do. If anyone knows Houston's richest Democrat, PLEASE have them contact me so I can convince them to FINALLY bring Air America Radio to the largest (and most needed) market in the country!

Ok, I don't think I have posting access, so I'm going to post it here and hope that someone reads it...

I called Air America yesterday and left a message telling them how important it was that they have a station here. They got back with me and emailed me this:

Good morning Robb,

Thank you for your interest in Air America.

When I get calls from listeners who want to bring Air America to their
cities or towns, I send this link.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/18/144723/171

Best of luck and thanks for your enthusiasm!

Best,
Mare Bayard

I went to the Daily Kos entry she directed me to, and the gist of it is to find the lowest rated radio stations and try to get them to switch format. They use Baton Rouge as an example. But what we face is totally different than what they faced in Baton Rouge.

The lowest rated stations in Houston are either owned by Liberman or Clear Channel. Liberman has 15 stations in Texas and California and they are all Spanish language station. I do not see them changing to another format for any reason. Clear Channel is another beast, all together. I really don't see them switching to the Air America format in Houston, but I could be wrong.

The only thing that I can see can happen is that if someone buys a station and makes it an Air America station. Does anyone know someone willing to pony up that kind of money?

Contact John Kelley at corpus@texaspopulists.com. He brought Air America Radio to Texas.